"for the sake of humanity"… A small town American high school history project changes lives worldwide. These are the observations of a veteran teacher- on the Power of Teaching, the importance of the study of History, and especially the lessons we must learn, and teach, on the Holocaust. Click on "Holocaust Survivors, Liberators Reunited" tab above to begin.

Why am I here? I am studying at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, for 19 days with 29 other educators from all over the world. And although we just started, one of the early takeaways is, think about what the world lost.

“I often wonder what this world would be like, if those 6 million had never perished.” Frank Towers, 30th Infantry Division, Liberator

We talk about the story of human beings. Of the ‘choiceless choices’, in the ghettos and the camps. About the will to live, about what it means to have nothing, from the perspective of the survivors. Maybe also the ”survivors’ guilt”, but also the victory over Hitler and Nazi ideology, as seen in the 2nd and 3rd generations of Holocaust survivors alive and flourishing today.

I am learning so much, and I am eager to learn more. But yesterday I learned that Frank Towers, Sr., age 99, passed away peacefully with his family by his side in Florida, on July 4th, 2016. Independence Day.

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Frank was born on June 13, 1917. Think about that for a minute. John F. Kennedy also came into the world, less than a month before Frank. ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody left the world. American involvement in WWI was just getting underway, and Frank’s future 30th Infantry Divison was formally activated. Gandhi was tromping around India, investigating the poor conditions of local farmers. The Russian Revolution was just getting started. American suffragettes that summer were arrested for picketing the White House for the right to vote for women.

So into this world came Frank W. Towers. And Frank Towers came into my life after he had already lived a good, long one, in September, 2007, shortly after he turned 90. But he had more things to do before the Almighty called him home.

He did not know me, and I did not know him-I have never even been to Florida, where he lived. But, from the news he learned of a reunion that we had recently done at our high school. He read about how I had reunited World War II tank commanders from the US Army 743rd Tank Battalion and 30th Infantry Division with the children of the Holocaust who he also had helped to liberate. And Frank said to himself, “Wait, I know about this. I was there, too.”

Frank reached out to me and we began a fruitful partnership in trying to locate more of the survivors who were on that train. He invited me, and the survivors, to the 30th Infantry Division Veterans of World War II reunions that they held annually down south. And these were powerfully moving events, to see the soldiers touched by the gestures of the survivors; and for the survivors to laugh and cry with their liberators was a gift that they, their children and grandchildren, will never forget. We also held additional reunions at our school, for the sake of making students the new witnesses to what happened during the Holocaust.

Holocaust survivor Ariela Rojek, right, was 11 years old in 1945 when she and 2,500 other concentration camp prisoners aboard a train near Magdeburg, Germany, were liberated by American forces including 1st Lt. Frank Towers, left with his son Frank Towers Jr., center. “You gave me my second life,” Rojek told Towers Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, at Hudson Falls High School during an event reuniting soldiers and survivors. [Jason McKibben Glens Falls Post Star]

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Today in class I was given the opportunity to speak in an open forum, ostensibly to comment on my thoughts about our collective, moving experience in being guided through the museum by our program leader Ephraim. He knew I had just lost Frank, and I think he knew that I needed to talk about it.

So I began. I told the group that I had been to Yad Vashem before, and that it was because of something very special in my life. In 2011, I was accompanying a then 94-year-old American liberator, who had just met over 500 people who were alive because of the liberators’ intervention and efforts at the ‘Train Near Magdeburg’ on April 13, 1945. Over 50 survivors were present, and later, Frank, his son, my son, Varda, and some survivors had a personal tour of Yad Vashem.

Frank W. Towers, Yad Vashem, 2011.

The museum is designed almost as a triangular tunnel, from which, as you move from prewar Jewish life to increasing persecution and eventual mass murder, gets purposely more bottlenecked and constricting and troubling as you move through the wings of increasing destruction. But in the course of this harrowing encounter with the past, always you draw nearer to an opening, a triangular apex of light that gets bigger, as you pass through time. And I tell the group that for me, the image I so recall, was the image of Frank and survivor’s daughter Varda, in the light and in the opening. It is highly likely that Varda would not be alive today, had it not been for Frank and the soldiers of the 30th Infantry Division and the 743rd Tank Battalion. So now she gave him a great gift, to be able to come to Jerusalem, the City of God, and see the fruits of victory, six and a half decades later-the hundreds of children and grandchildren he met and shook hands with. And I got to witness it all.

And then I paused, and told them that the world had lost Frank Towers only 36 hours before. And here I was, six thousand miles away, and unable to go to his services in Florida. Instead I am here at Yad Vashem, sitting in a classroom, pouring out my heart. And it hurts.

But this is not a lament. As I speak, the reason why I can’t go to Frank now crystallizes and becomes clarified for me. You see, led by Frank, the veterans of World War II have paved the way many times for me to travel abroad to study the Holocaust. Think about that. The American soldiers who encountered the Holocaust as young men in 1945, open their wallets to send a teacher to study, so that this history is not lost to upcoming generations. Of course, the survivor community has also been very generous in this regard, but the soldiers, led by Frank Towers, are so grateful, that the Holocaust-and their sacrifices in slaying the beast-will never be forgotten.

So, I’m at Yad Vashem studying the Holocaust when Frank passes for a reason-this is right where he would want me to be. And as I close with my new teacher friends, after a very long and emotionally charged day, I remind them that we all bear a collective responsibility as teachers to carry on doing what we do when we teach, especially in teaching the subject of the Holocaust:

Frank Jr, Frank, Varda. Yad Vashem, 2011

We are creating human beings. We are cultivating humanity. There is no past, and it is never over. There is hope amidst all the darkness in the world. The tunnel will lead to the light.

This is the transformation that I feel, when I look at the photo of Frank here at Yad Vashem. I’m grateful for the words that I see as the backdrop for this sharing time in the classroom today:

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken. -Albert Camus

That’s a tall order, today. Godspeed, Frank Towers. Candles on almost all the continents are lit for you. The short newscasts below are a part of the legacy, of the last liberator.

NBC News w/ Ann Curry

ABC News w/ Diane Sawyer

USHMM Video

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7 Responses

Thank you for this beautiful tribute to Frank and sharing so eloquently how this tremendous personal loss intersected with your current experience….I cannot imagine a more fitting place to share this story than with teachers and mentors at Yad Vashem. May Frank’s memory be a blessing to you, Matt and to all who have heard the amazing liberator/survivor story you have shared.

Matt, Thank you for putting into words what so many of us feel. I feel more than blessed that I met Mr. Towers (at the 30th’s 2009 Reunion in Charleston), and was privileged to attend all their Reunions until it disbanded in 2015. At that Reunion, I met several WWII veterans (my father was there, too); and seven survivors from the train. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life, to hear them tell the accounts of their lives. It affected me deeply; and these folks, whether I never saw them again, or met new survivors in the ensuing years, will always have a special place in my heart: for what they accomplished with their lives after their world was shattered and their families separated or destroyed; and for their joy of living, without hatred in their hearts! They have much to teach us, and your part in teaching our youth about the Holocaust, through the survivors, makes a much more vivid impression than just reading something in a history book! Seeking out the survivors from the train was a wonderful thing for you and Mr. Towers to undertake; and I can’t imaging the feeling of being a survivor and getting to meet one of my liberators from so long ago! Since the 2015 Reunion of the 30th Infantry Division WWII veterans, we’ve lost six of these great men- and we will not see the likes of them, again! They are truly of “The Greatest Generation”, and we, and the world, are so much poorer without their knowledge, passion for and appreciation of life, love of their fellow man- to a one, humble about their part in the War; and gentlemen all. When I would look at the veterans at the Reunions, some would be in wheel chairs, some with breathing machines, canes- all old, wrinkled, but still that spark of “life” there; and, then, I’d think of them as young men who had been pursuing their lives back in 1941- and every one answered their country’s call, and did their duty. Those veterans were the lucky ones- the ones who survived the war, and got to come home to build families and, hopefully, a better world for all. Mr. Towers represented all of our veterans by sharing his knowledge, and message, about our country’s part in the war- and, especially, about the train survivors. His bearing, dignity and grace was an example to everyone who knew him- and he will be sorely missed by all who had the privilege to meet him. My life is so much richer for having met Mr. Towers, the other 30th veterans- and especially by the Holocaust survivors I met through him! I can never thank you enough, Matt, for being such a friend and collaborator with Mr. Towers, and the two of you bringing this seemingly “small and unknown event”, in a great war, to the attention of the world. May he rest in peace- and thank you, Mr. Towers, for your service to our country, and for a life well-lived and a job well-done!

Hi Carol. Thank you. Wasn’t it all something? We were so lucky. Hard to imagine the world without these men. I hope my upcoming book does them, and the survivors and all the people we lost, some small measure of justice and appreciation.